Steve Addington isn’t exactly sure why things didn’t work out as crew chief for Tony Stewart but he will try to look forward as he moves on to become crew chief and competition director for Phoenix Racing.

Addington, a longtime Nationwide Series crew chief who had been a Cup crew chief for nine years at Joe Gibbs Racing and Penske Racing before moving to SHR, will now direct Phoenix Racing, which is owned by Harry Scott and expected to have Justin Allgaier as its driver.

“It’s not any hard feelings,” the 49-year-old Addington said Thursday. “Are you scratching your head on what happened? Yes. … . It’s their decision.

“There’s nothing we can do to change it so there’s no sense in throwing stones in a glass house.”

The entire SHR organization struggled early in 2013, and Addington thought the team’s testing in the late spring and summer helped. Stewart won at Dover in June, part of a 10-race stretch when he had seven top-10s after having just one in the first 11 races.

Mark Martin primarily drove Stewart's car after Stewart’s accident. The team struggled the rest of the season and finished 18th in the owner standings.

“It took the wind out of our sails, and it’s hard to throw someone in there and go to the racetrack,” Addington said of Stewart's injury. “We did it. The only thing we could do was unload like we would with Tony Stewart and Mark couldn’t drive that stuff.

“If you looked at the last four races, we gained some speed and gained some stuff that Mark liked in the car.”

Addington said that making changes at SHR was not easy to do because of the previous success as well as the team being a three-car organization. He said new parts and pieces were not built as fast as a crew chief would like.

“It’s been up and down,” Addington said. “They came off a championship season. There’s rules and stuff that changes and templates and cars change and (people) just expect you can go through and do the same thing over and over and over again.

“It’s not that way. It’s forever changing. It’s hard to get that change implemented when you come off a successful season — it’s a new guy (but) this is the way we do things, this is what we’ve done, and that stuff is frustrating.”

SHR will be a four-car operation in 2014 with the addition of Kurt Busch, whom Addington worked with for two years at Penske Racing. Addington left Penske for SHR before it was decided that Busch also would leave Penske after the 2011 season.

Addington said he would have been open to working with Busch at SHR.

“I don’t know if it was brought up (internally) or not,” Addington said. “I would have had no issues working with Kurt again. Kurt and I had a good relationship.

“Whatever those discussions were behind the scenes were those people’s decisions.”

So now it’s on to Phoenix Racing, a good fit for Addington considering that Phoenix has a relationship with Hendrick Motorsports, as did SHR. Addington also knows what it’s like to work with a smaller team, having spent several years at ppc Racing in the Nationwide Series.

“Less people, less headaches,” Addington said. “It’s going to be different (than SHR). It’s not unlimited amounts of money or budgets but it’s something we can go race with and I feel like we can be competitive with.

“We’ll have good equipment. … We can be successful. We’re going to ease into this thing and hopefully be able to surprise some people and have a good season.”

Addington said the key is the people. The team will remain based in South Carolina for at least the next year.

“People make the difference,” Addington said. “I’ve learned the lesson. You’ve got to have your people behind you. That’s what we’re going to do.

“We’re going to establish the people who want to work for Phoenix Racing, Steve Addington and Harry Scott and that’s what we’re going to build here."